Chelmsford girl a finalist for bullying video

CHELMSFORD -- When Sophie Haywood learned of a filmmaking contest for youngsters, she knew right away she wanted to go for it, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do it on: Bullying.

"I thought it would be a good topic to spread the message," said Haywood, who, four days before her 14th birthday, will be one of five finalists Saturday in a national award ceremony in New York.

The three-minute video features one of Haywood's friends, Julia Squeri, as a girl who posts a picture of herself online and is made fun of by another of Haywood's friends, Abby Fortin, playing the bully.

"Julia uploaded a picture of herself on Facebook," a caption reads. "She never knew what chaos would come out of it."

Julia is pleased with the picture.

"That looks so good," she says to herself. But then the character Abby, a popular girl at school, comes across the picture and thinks otherwise.

"You are so ugly," Abby writes. "No wonder you have no friends."

Two of Julia's friends -- played by Haywood and another friend, Isabelle Danahy -- see Abby's post and denounce it. Danahy's character goes to Julia's house, gives her a hug, tells her she looked pretty in the picture and says when she was bullied the year before, she went to a guidance counselor who was helpful. Julia looks in the mirror and tells herself that she likes the way she looks and Abby comes by later to apologize.

At the end of the video, all four girls talk directly to the camera to decry bullying and say "You are who you are.

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Of the five finalists and another who will receive an honorary award, three made videos on bullying.

"It is profound that three of the six winning videos focused on the trauma of bullying and the need to prevent it," Alan Elias, the CEO of OnBuzz, one of the award's sponsors, said in a statement.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center was the other sponsor in addition to OnBuzz, a family entertainment social network.

Any subject could be chosen, as long as it was between 30 seconds and three minutes, and was shot and edited on a smartphone, Haywood said. She's always been interested in directing videos, and Fortin, her friend, has always wanted to be an actress, she said.

Haywood, who is in eighth grade at Parker Middle School, will go to the awards event with her parents, Beth and Peter.

"It's very exciting," said Beth Haywood, adding that she didn't have to help with any aspects of the project.

Her friends won't be able to attend, but Haywood said she was proud of the work they did together.

"I'm very glad they did it with me," she said, "because I couldn't have done it without them."

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